SBIR Phase I: A Novel Platform for Automatic Geo-Tagging of Images

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop computer software that automatically recognizes buildings, structures, and landmarks in digital photographs, as well as the precise location where photos were taken. The advent of the digital age has led to hundreds of millions of photos being shared on the Web every day. This influx of user-generated content is leading to significant challenges in organizing and understanding large photo collections from the many thousands of photographs captured by a family over several years, to the billions of photos shared online each month. For instance, annotating photos is currently a burdensome task; users of photo-sharing services have no accurate, automated method for labeling landmarks and other structures present in their pictures, instead relying on manual tagging. Using newly invented computer vision technology, this project aims to automatically transform photographs of locations into geo-tagged user engagement portals storyboards rich with pixel-level annotations and hyper-relevant information. The innovations leverage a unique database of 3D models, yielding very accurate locations and tags. The project objectives include developing algorithms for world-scale location-based image content recognition, an accurate annotation method, and an application programming interface for the system for use by application developers. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project are significant; as digital photo-sharing has become a major online activity, there will be considerable market interest in the ability to identify and link photos to hyper-local and highly relevant information, including advertising, for the tourism and hospitality market sector, as well as for small local businesses. Additionally, the technology will enable companies in the social media market sector to increase user engagement through interactive and contextualized photo browsing. Furthermore, the proposed technology can transform photos into image-powered platform for the mobile phone market sector, allowing for a seamless transition between digital photos and online maps and thus greatly enhancing user navigation of new physical environments using mobile devices. Finally, the technology can also provide key analytics to companies in social media monitoring, by determining aggregate patterns in where and why people take photos at locations of interest.